Women suffer many causes of violence and discrimination in Africa and worldwide.
Sometimes people tend to think that gender-based violence is only physical abuse of women and children
One way of gender violence in Malawi is widespread ownership of property. Many women are stripped of their belongings after the death of their husbands or sent to their villages of origin. Evidence has shown that in most cases, after a divorce or death of the spouse, the couple bought property in common is distributed in any way or take it away from women. The husband's family can empty the house completely and take all belongings out of it without a woman can complain to the law: are household utensils and kitchen appliances, radios, sewing machines, blankets and mattresses to leave the widow and children in the strictest poverty. For this reason an organization called Women in Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust, Wils, (Women in Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Fund) wants to make sure there is equal access to the division of property between spouses after a divorce or death of the husband.
